The Public Health Association of BC: Public Health Summer Institute 2021

Public Health Summer Institute 2021 Fake or Fact? Promoting Digital Health Literacy in an Era of New Media and Misinformation

The Public Health Association of BC, Saskatchewan Public Health Association, Yukon Public Health Community of Practice, and the Public Health Agency of Canada is proud to announce our 12th annual public health summer institute, “Fake or Fact? Promoting Digital Health Literacy in an Era of New Media and Misinformation,” happening Thursday June 24th and Friday June 25th, 2021. Due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic we will once again be hosting the summer institute virtually.

Over the last twelve years, the summer institute has provided excellent opportunities for continuing education and professional development via a unique evidence-based program where participants can actively learn, evaluate and test the principles of the curriculum through keynote presentations, best practice examples and case studies, team building exercises, and hands-on activities. We strive to bring together public health professionals who work directly or indirectly with public health issues across numerous social service sectors and help to foster innovative solutions to the identified issues.

The institute endeavors to bring together public health professionals and providers, students and researchers across numerous health and social service sectors to explore the population health challenges and opportunities related to the dissemination, diffusion and promotion of health information in the digital age. Using a health promotion lens, the 2021 Summer Institute will identify effective interventions, strategies and practices that participants can employ to promote digital health literacy in the general population. Special attention will be paid to threats posed by misinformation/disinformation and strategies to isolate, control and manage these threats.

Some topics to be discussed include:

• Vaccine hesitancy & vaccine safety
• Climate change & environmental health
• Social & political movements
• Misinformation across time
• From advocacy to action – operationalizing social media
• Misinformation & marginalized communities
• Digital inequality & digital health literacy

Register today for this informative and interactive summer institute! As an added bonus, registrants who are located within BC, Saskatchewan or Yukon will receive a complimentary one-year membership to their region’s public health association.

More information will be released in the coming weeks and will be made available on our event page at: phabc.org/public-health-summer-institute-2021/